Message in a bottle
by Katie237
Summary: (AU 3x10) Everything goes from bad to worse when the team is forced to forcibly disconnect Barry from Cisco's Vibe while still being in it and the hero end up, once again, in a coma. To make matters worse, weird malfunctions start threatening the life support equipment needed to keep the hero alive.
1. The Future

**A/N: Please don't kill me for starting another story. I just needed to get that idea out of my head.**

 **It's basically happening in the 3x10 when Cisco and Barry go in the future to see Savitar murdering Iris. Had the idea of the first chapter since they aired the promo for that episode. There's a deleted cut in that promo 9that didn't make it in the actual episode) where you see someone's brain waves going off the chart. I started with that idea, but I have a lot more ideas for what's coming, enough to make a long story if you're interested.**

 **Enjoy!**

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''What's happening?'' Worriedly asked Iris as Barry's head tilted to his right before his whole body was leaning forward in his chair.

If that wasn't enough to increase the woman's uneasiness, Barry's rapidly increasing breathing and the computer alarm that went off in the next moment, stopping Caitlin midway in her movement to open her mouth, did the trick and confirmed she had real reasons for her anxiety. Instantly reacting, while controlling her rising panic, the doctor stared straight at her computer screen, analyzing the data she had been monitoring:

''His brain waves are off the chart.'' She observed loudly before turning her attention to the two sitting men. ''Barry, it's not real.'' Well, not yet. ''You need to calm down.''

 _'Come on, don't do this.'_ She silently thought.

''Barry! Come back here.'' Boomed Cisco's voice speaking from inside his vibe. The engineer's body was tensing up in his chair while his blood pressure and heartbeat peaked instantly. Something was definitely not right.

''What's happening?'' Urgently said H.R., looking around at each and every scientist in the room, someone had to know what to do. Right? Right?! Cause he sure as hell didn't have a single clue.

''Come back to me, Barry.'' Said Iris, rushing forward and kneeling closer to her boyfriend with her hands hovering over him, unsure if she could touch him. Would that bring him back? Would he be able to sense it all to way inside his vision?

What started as a tic, a single motion, quickly turned into much, much more. Mere seconds later, the silent hero's head violently started to shake around, his arms and legs suddenly strongly jerking in all directions.

''Caitlin!'' Called out Iris in alarm, her eyes locking themselves on the doctor, silently screaming for help: _'Please, help him. Do something.'_

''Cisco, get him out!'' Shouted the doctor to the engineer, her face reflecting the same level of dread than her friend while she was fidgeting over her computer screen unsure what the hell she was supposed to do. ''He's about to-''

Too late. The speedster whole body stiffened just before his muscles violently started to jolt in the chair; every single one were jerking, moving and shaking all over the place with no control whatsoever from the man himself.

''Oh my God!'' Shouted Iris, putting her hand in front of her wide-open mouth. Her eyes fully opened with tears already burning in the corner of them. It wasn't supposed to happen.

They needed to do something. They needed to get him back, now! Perhaps if she…No time to think or overthink it. The reporter did the only thing her panic brain could come up with; disconnecting the speedster. He was fine before going in, he should be once he's out. Reacting, without thinking, she reached out for the headset and took it off, but not without screaming out in surprise and pain as she was doing it.

''Ow.'' She exclaimed, bringing her shocked fingers to her mouth to try and ease the physical pain. Really? Just what she needed today. Not the time for electric malfunctions.

''Iris?'' Asked Caitlin in concern, yet barely glancing at the young woman before reporting all of her attention to her most urgent patient who wasn't nearly done seizing.

''I'm ok.'' She assured, massaging her right hand. Burning and tickling sensation were all over the limb, but this could wait to be looked at. Barry, on the other hand, couldn't wait. What about Cisco? ''Cisco, get out too!'' The young reporter screamed at the engineer, fearing the same fate was awaiting him.

Bang!

A loud sound brought back everyone's attention to Barry as the man violently shoved his head backward, connecting it against the metal chair.

''Lay him on the ground, now!'' Ordered Caitlin to anyone listening, not even noticing that Cisco was now out of his vision. The engineer took off his own headset and started looking around, first in confusion and then in complete dread.

''Barry! What's happening?!'' He screamed to the doctor, jumping to his feet, instantly in full out panic. ''Why is he seizing?''

''I don't know.'' She snapped back in frustration, trying to shout loud enough to cover to piercing alarm. If anyone could just stop talking and let her do her damn job. Just getting the young man out of the chair had her drenched in sweat, or maybe it was just because of the efforts needed to stay calm. Even with H.R. help, she was struggling to get and keep any kind of grip of Barry who just wouldn't stop moving.

''Easy, easy.'' She said as they both finally managed to take Barry out of the chair and they were trying to lay the hero on the ground. Easier said than done. They all winced as another sudden movement had the speedster's head hit the ground. The next instant, the hero went completely still.

Exchanging a worried glance, Caitlin and H.R. put there the hero on the ground, not giving any attention to all of Cisco and Iris' comments or questions. Leaning over the CSI, Caitlin put her ears just over his mouth and closely watched the chest under the beige hoodie.

''He's….he's not breathing.'' She choked out after a couple of anxious moments.

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 **A/N: What do you think? Should I do more? Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on that**

 **I have drafts for the remaining chapters of Reckless Hero, so I'll have one more chapter ready next week. Hopefully also one more for Wounds of the Spirit.**


	2. Coma

**A/N: Yes, this used to be ''Come back to me'' but with a new title. The truth is that because I was in such a hurry to post the first chapter and I wasn't sure if I was going to write the whole story, I didn't give enough time to my brain to come up with a good fitting name. Thanks for the person who voted that title among the 3 suggestions I putted on my writing account.**

 **This title is going to stick around 'til the end, promise!**

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"No!" Iris yelped in obvious distress, "Caitlin, do something!" She screamed, not that she really needed to say anything as Caitlin was already in full doctor mode, taking a closer look at her patient's other vitals.

"How did this happen?" asked Cisco on the verge of a panic attack. Did he just kill his best friend by taking him in the future? It couldn't be his fault, there's no way. This never happened before... unless it was his fault? Just the possibility had his stomach turning upside down.

"Not now, Cisco! Give me some damn space to work." Caitlin snapped aggressively, as she pressed her fingers against her unresponsive friend's wrist, silently searching for a beating. She sighed in relief; it was weak, but it was there. ''Come on, Barry, don't do this.''

A sudden bang just behind the group had Iris screaming in surprise and turning around at the sparks of electricity now surrounding the computers that were used to follow Cisco and Barry's vitals. The monitor went completely black in the next moment, smoking and crackling. Like they didn't have enough problems now... thank God for the fact that both Barry and Cisco were now disconnected from the monitor.

Barely glancing at the malfunctioning equipment, Caitlin tilted Barry's head back and opened his mouth before breathing two times in his lung. While doing the resuscitation manoeuvre, she was closely watching the hero's chest rising and falling for a moment before returning just as still as before. Was all of this because he hit his head, twice, during his seizure? Or was it something more? Whatever it was, the questions could wait until Barry was breathing again on his own. Repeating the manoeuvre another time, the doctor's nose creased at the new odor suddenly hitting it. Was it... smoke? A fire?

Taking her eyes off her patient, just for one quick moment, she turned around to witness H.R. running to grab to closest extinguisher in the room while there was indeed small flames and more smoke coming out of the ruined computer. Caitlin growled in frustration; not exactly in the best environment to revive someone who couldn't take a single breath on his own. Pressing once again her delicate fingers on the CSI's skin, she gasped in horror.

"His heart stopped!" She screamed in a rising panic.

As if on cue, a yellow trail of lightning appeared and stopped at the door of the breach room. Wally.

"Dad's upstairs and he's…" whatever he was about to say died in his throat when he became aware of all the action in the room, "what's…"

"Medbay, now!" Screamed Caitlin to the youngest speedster.

She barely had the time to finish what she was about to say before she suddenly found herself standing up exactly where she wanted to be with her patient lying flat on the bed right in front of her. Caitlin also mentally thanked Wally when she noticed the speedster had somehow taken the beige jacket off her patient.

"Come on Barry. Fight!" She ordered as she felt her heart pumping violently in her chest. Seizing a pair of scissors from the table and hurrying the last step that was now separating the doctor from her patient, she frowned as she noticed what looked like a burn mark on the side of the young hero's head. It was exactly right where he had his headset moments earlier.

Examining that wound will have to wait for later as she returned to her task of cutting away the shirt and starting compressions, counting them aloud. 1… 2… 3… 4... 30. Rushing back to Barry's head, she gave him once more two artificial breaths as she felt her throat starting to burn with fear and doubt.

What if they couldn't resuscitate him?

"Let me help." Cisco's voice came from behind her, almost causing the doctor to jump out of her skin; when'd he enter the room?

"Prepare the defibrillators and the pads!" She ordered, looking around while thinking and planning her next actions. Every second was counting. Briefly looking at the window separating the medical bay from the other room, she spotted Joe standing on the other side of it with confusion and dread striking his features and she made eye contact with the man. His face was filled with the same horror overwhelming his children's expressions as both Iris and Wally were standing on each side of their father. In that moment, each member of the West family was anxiously waiting and observing each movement being made in the other room.

The Detective could barely breathe as he was witnessing the scene. What the hell happened? He wasn't gone that long and Barry wasn't wearing his red suit, so that meant his son wasn't attacked while defending the city as The Flash, unless he got caught by surprise by a metahuman looking to hurt some civilian? No, Joe would've learned about something like that at the station. Not to mention there was no blood or horrible injuries in sight. Was there a threat walking around in the lab? Everyone else looked fine, physically speaking. It was with a weird detachment that Joe continued to watch the next events unfolding in front of his eyes, feeling his limbs going numb from the shock, almost as he wasn't in control of his body or even in it. His mind almost felt like it was floating above the team as it was trying to make sense of the orders the doctor was giving to her friend and watching them struggle to bring some life into his too-still son. It wasn't until after 4 sets of compressions and three tries with the defibrillators that the young scientists finally let out a collective sigh of relief.

"We have a pulse." Caitlin sighed in relief, loud enough for her public to also hear it. Except, that joy ended up being short-lived as the next words sent Joe's heart sunken once more in dread, "dammit, he's still not breathing. We're gonna have to intubate," stated Caitlin, making the split-second decision.

With her expert hands - wait, was the blood on them? - she quickly inserted a tube down the hero's throat with skilled precision before setting up the ventilator that was going to pump the precious gas into the speedster's lungs 'til his body would get better. Because, yes, Barry was going to heal and rebound from… from whatever was happening to him. When Cisco walked out of the room to let his friend examine her patient, looking exhausted, Joe moved closer to the door to meet the engineer. Before the detective even had time to open his mouth, Cisco was already talking;

"Joe, I'm so sorry, it's all my fault."

His fault? Wait, what?

"How did this happen? I came to tell you that Plunder escaped…did he attack here?"

"I shouldn't have tried to take him in the futu-" Oh uh, he shouldn't have said that, Cisco should have definitely not said that.

Looking past Barry's foster dad, Cisco's glance met Iris' as she was frenetically moving her hands above one another, from right to left and back. Oh crap, that's right, Joe didn't know and was never supposed to know about Iris' supposedly future's murder in a couple of months. Too late to take that back now…

"Wait, what future? What are you talking about?" Joe's eyes moved around, from one person to another. His glances moved from both his children to Cisco and back, all of them were wearing the same guilty features.

Ah damn.

 *****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

The cortex was filled with complete silence the instant Iris, Cisco and Wally finished telling Joe about the future, about what was about to happen on the morning of May 23th.

"How long have you known?" Joe asked eventually when he finally recovered his ability to speak, angrily looking from one person to another as they all uncomfortably looked down in guilt. Secrets had always been their thing, and none of these secrets never ended well, no matter if the intentions behind them were good or not.

"How long?" Shouted Joe, repeating his question after a few minutes when nobody was offered any answers.

"A few weeks, Joe." Cisco spilled out finally, carefully avoiding eyes contact as he leaned over the cortex desk.

"And you're just telling me now? This is my daughter's life we're talking about and now you put my son's life in danger too because of your recklessness!" He said angrily, walking away to face the red suit instead of the people he was talking with.

"Joe... we can fix this," reassured Cisco, attempting to regain the detective's attention while fearing they might've lost the man's respect. Cisco and both the man's children closely looked at each of Joe's movements as he was scratching his beard and fighting back the anger and dread inside of him.

"We're not going to let this happen, any of it. We're not going to let Iris die, nor will Barry. They'll both be fine.'' Wally intervened, supporting his friends, "we'll make sure of it."

"How did this happen?" Asked Joe finally, turning around and pointing with shaky hands at the medical room where his son was now lying unconscious and unable to even breathe on his own.

"It's possible that because of what we did, me and Barry vibing together, while staying in contact with the computers caused the systems to overload and send the electrical surge at Barry. I think the jolt Barry's brain received is what cause him to seize," theorized Cisco, closing his eyes and massaging his forehead. It wasn't making any sense, they had to be missing something.

"But…" the engineer added, needing to reassure the older man as much as he needed to comfort himself. "Barry was fine in my future vibe, so we know he'll be ok."

"Unless you already changed that by going in there." Joe pointed out gloomily.

That was one terrifying thought, but one they should all consider even if pointing that out caused a lump to form in Iris' throat. It's not what they wanted when they planned to change the future, unless… could what was happening to Barry lead to avoid her own death? What that the twisted way of the universe to get back at them from trying to change their fate?

"I could go back in there and try to see if Barry is fine," proposed Cisco, straightening himself up, determination flashing in his eyes. There was no way he was going to let his friend's fate up to luck.

"Uh huh… bad idea." Wally replied instantly, "as much as I want to make sure Barry will be ok, we can't risk sending you back. We don't even know what went wrong just yet, you might end up like Barry."

"I don't think so," protested Cisco, already walking away to search where he put down his goggles last time, forcing everyone else to turn around and follow his movements, "Like I already said," he briefly turning around to face the team, "I never should've used the wires to connect myself with Barry, we should've used direct contact. That's why he got electrocuted. I'll be safe if I go alone."

A thought stuck Iris; what if... what if it wasn't Cisco's fault or an equipment malfunction? What if she was the real reason behind all of this? Cisco was always saying how he needs to stay in contact with whoever he's vibing with, what if the problem happened when she disconnected her boyfriend from the computer?

"You guys don't think that it's all because of me?" She said numbly, her eyes widening. '' I'm the one who broke that connection between you and Barry, while you were still using your powers with him."

Considering the possibility for a second, Cisco rubbed his chin before dismissing it, "no, it's wasn't you, he was already seizing before you intervened. Not to mention…"

His sentence was cut-short when Caitlin walked out of the medical room and approached the group with a grave expression on her face. Within seconds, the doctor found herself surrounded.

"Is he-"

"He's still on the ventilator, but his vitals are stable for now," she answered mechanically, "he's stable," she repeated like a broken record as if she was hoping that repeating it would convince herself.

''Cait, what aren't you telling us?'' Asked Cisco, picking up ion his friend's hesitation.

Of course, she was never going to get away with anything but the truth, not with Cisco around: ''He's in a coma. '' She announced, looking down.

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 **A/N: Leave a comment and please don't kill me ;P**


	3. Hypothetically

**A/N: Like Cisco would said...we're back, baby! I took the time to finish all my other stories to be sure than when I would come back to that story, it would be with regular updates.**

 **So, here we go. Since me and my Beta will probably be busy in Christmas times, the Chapter 4 will probably come in January, but starting with Chapter 4, you will get regular updates on that story. So, take the holidays to re-read this story from the start and get ready.**

 **Enjoy!**

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"Ow!" Squealed Iris, flinching at the contact. Instantly, she stopped staring at Barry and turned around to look back at Caitlin's work as the doctor was bandaging her friend's hand, "careful! That hurt."

"I'm almost done, it's a bad burn you have there. And be glad it hurt, otherwise it would've meant you had permanent nerve damages in your hand, which, gladly, isn't the case."

Iris didn't answer and moved her glance away from her hand to come back at supervising the rhythmical rise and fall of Barry's chest as the machine was pumping the precious oxygen in his lungs. It was with eagle eyes that the young woman was keeping a close tab on every equipment presently attached to the speedster, the machines that were keeping him alive. As long as they were beeping steadily, everything was under control. Whether it was a lie or not didn't matter, as long as that thought kept the hope burning inside Iris' mind.

She currently couldn't care less about how bad her wounded right hand was, nor did she cared about finding the reason why the wire shocked her when she disconnected Barry. The only thing that did matter right now was the comatose man in front of her. Why? Why were these things always happening? How long until he was going to come back to them? One day? One month? Nine months? More? Sighing deeply, she lowered her head and brushed her forehead with her left hand.

Sitting on a chair at the right of the reporter, Caitlin was finishing to delicately treat the burn on Iris' hand. Every action was being taken with the deepest of care and concentration like she was doing the most delicate surgical procedure instead of a simple bandage. Actually, she had been off and uncharacteristically quiet since she dropped the coma bomb to the group, not that anyone could really blame her under these circumstances. Truth be told, the first time Barry was in that same condition and under the doctor's cares, he only was an unknown patient to her. All she had to do at that time was to keep a close tab on the man's vitals and adjust her treatment; a simple daily routine before going home to a peaceful sleep. Now? Now emotions were running high as her close friend's life was hanging in the balance. No matter how hard she was trying, she just couldn't detach her fears from her actions, nor could go she go home and take the situation out of her head for the night.

"How is he?" Cisco asked, walking in the medical room.

"Still the same," informed Iris before Caitlin had the chance to do it.

Of course, he was still the same; the doctor would've informed everyone in an instant if there was anything significant changes, but still, the engineer hoped. He had hoped his friend somehow got cured miraculously so he could ease his own guilt about that whole fiasco.

"I can't find the reason as to why the system overloaded," he said, passing a hand in his hairs. What kind of person puts his best friend in the coma like that without having anything to offer to fix him or even being able to explain how this came to be?

"I don't think it's your fault, Cisco." reassured Caitlin, releasing Iris' hand and taking off her medical gloves.

"Thanks for trying, but-" started Vibe, clearly not believing she was saying that for any other reason than to make him feel any better.

"I'm not just saying this," interrupted the doctor, getting up from her chair and pushing back her hairs behind her shoulders, "the wound on Barry's head was an exit wound, not an entry one."

That sentence had both the engineer and the reporter on the chair frowning and looking up at their friend with interrogation all over their features.

"What are you saying?" Asked Iris while looking back at Barry and tilting her head to see if she could find the burn sign in her boyfriend's hairs.

"It means that I don't think the headset shocked Barry and caused him to seize; it's more like the SpeedForce somehow discharged itself on the wires."

Cisco's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he stared into his friend's eyes, trying to put the pieces together, "why? Why would his powers do that? And why is he in a coma if he didn't get shocked by the computer?"

Breaking eye contact, Caitlin looked slightly away as she bit her bottom lip, "I wish I had the answers right now, but I don't, yet," she paused and turned her back on them all, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said something before I knew what it meant. I'm about to do some scans and tests to see if I can find out what's wrong."

A barely contain sob suddenly escaped her lips, hating to have nothing to offer to everyone around who was desperate for comfort and good news.

A hand appeared on her shoulder, "hey, I'm trusting you," said Cisco, forcing a smile on his lips, "if anyone can fix him, it's you."

"Thanks," she wiped her eyes, and just in time too since footsteps made themselves heard, entering the cortex and announcing the return of Wally and Joe. Both men entered the room, with Joe carrying Plunder's gun over his shoulder. It was two more people who needed comfort, two people who didn't need to see the person they were counting on barely hanging in there.

"Morillo isn't going to bother anyone again," Wally stated emotionlessly, his usual smile absent on his face as was the enthusiasm that used to accompany every small victory from the young speedster.

Without wasting any more second commenting the fight, Joe loudly dropped the gun on the cortex's main desk and strode forward, almost jogging, toward the medical lab.

"How's…"

A quick and sad head shake from his daughter was all the answer the detective needed. Closing his eyes in defeat, he let himself fall in the chair that was the closest to the bed and took his foster son's hand into his owns, watching him sleep with the grey sheet up to his shirtless waist.

"What's the plan?" He asked after a moment of silence.

"I'm going back to the future," said Cisco, reiterate his initial plan, "I don't care about the risks, I need to know if Barry is going to be ok."

"Don't," Iris stood up and gently, but firmly grabbing his arm, "no matter what you're going to see, your actions to cement your vision or to keep it from happening will alter it.''

"Iris is right," Agreed Caitlin, "if you see that Barry is present and fine on May 23th, our overconfidence might prevent us from taking a risky action that caused him to get better. Or, if he's not there…"

"We could take reckless actions we wouldn't consider otherwise," Cisco completed for her as he sighed, "yeah, I know she's right...I just hate doing nothing."

"Cisco…"

It's not like the rest of them were doing much of anything; there was nobody to go out and punch 'til Barry was free from his current state.

Their chat got interrupted as the lights suddenly started fluctuating, on and off and on and off again. Every time, the power only turned off for a split of a second, but enough for everyone in the room to stop and held their breath.

"Hypothetically, let's say we were to lose power… what would happen to Barry?" Nervously asked Iris.

"All the life support is directly connected to the rest of the building's power, so, if we were to lose all of it…" Cisco trailed off.

"Thought you were checking out the systems while we were gone," Joe asked accusingly, a little rougher than intended.

"I did," said Cisco, baffled by the situation. Was that simply a coincidence, a little short-circuit in the power grid of the lab considering the bad weather starting on outside…or he really missed something important? Something that got affected by the Speed Force's discharge released by the seizing speedster?

The how didn't matter, the only thing that did was that his best friend's life was depending on finding the source. Cisco gently touched his friend's too still arm.

"You stay with us, all right buddy? We'll take care of you."

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 **A/N: Comments are always deeply appreciated :)**

 **Any of you have an idea about what's going on in there?**


	4. Come back to us

**A/N: Welcome back to this first of many weekly updates of this story to come. Enjoy!**

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"Hey, Barr. I really hope that you can hear me; I need you to stop doing this to us. My old heart can't take much more of this."

For the whole evening and most of the night, Joe hadn't left his foster son, sitting by his side the whole time, monitoring his condition and looking for the most imperceptible changes. As dawn was approaching, the man had managed to mentally register every detail of how Barry's chest was rising and falling under the artificial breathes and the pattern of his weak but still beating heart on the monitor. At this moment, he was almost just as qualified as Caitlin to identify a hypothetical change in Barry's condition, not that he would know what to do about it. The detective was determined not to let a single flinch go unseen by his eagle's eyes; he was going to be there at the very first sign his son would give that he was finally ready to come back to them.

That was if his exhausted body wasn't going to fail him and drift into sleep first without his permission. His hand went for his hair as he inhaled and exhaled deeply before continuing, "at this very moment, I really don't care that you lied to me about what you saw in the future, just… just come back to us. Just come back to me."

He almost choked out on the last words, feeling his eyes filling themselves with water, he couldn't lose Barry. Not now, nor ever.

If someone was to look fast enough at the unconscious speedster, they almost could've said that Barry was just sleeping peacefully. Peace would've been good, peace is what the hero had been needing the most. Since becoming the Flash, the weight of the world had been on his shoulders, whether it had been Reverse Flash, rebuilding the city, Zoom, the death of his dad, Flashpoint or now, Savitar. The poor kid hadn't had a single break in years. Well, he looked peaceful if you didn't pay too much attention to all the wires connected to his body and the tube down his throat.

It would be a lie to say that part of the detective's worry didn't include the fact that the best chance, the best person, to protect his daughter against Savitar was down. Was it selfish to think like that when it was Barry's life on the line at this very moment? A hand suddenly landing on his shoulder jostled him.

Quickly turning his head around, he ended up facing his daughter who looked just as exhausted as he was feeling right now, even if the night wasn't even done yet. It wasn't exactly his first sleepless night, especially not since Barry started risking his life on a daily basis, but the adrenaline leaving his bloodstream after Barry's heart stopped was having quite a toll on him, physically and mentally speaking.

"Dad?" Iris asked, concern shining in her eyes as she stared straight into her father's own eyes to make sure he was with her, "I've been calling you a couple of times already, you okay?"

Joe scoffed; was he okay? Surely not. While his right elbow was resting on the bed, next to his son's too still form, he rubbed his eyes with his right hand and sighed deeply.

"Sorry, I was just…thinking," as he was talking, he didn't even open his eyes or looked at his daughter, "I just don't know what I'll do if he doesn't come back to us this time or if his condition become more…permanent. I can't do this again.'' Overwhelmed by the grim future that could be ahead, Joe buried his face between his hands.

Yeah, Iris didn't think she could do it again either. Putting on her brave face and locking away her fear and doubts for the next couple of minutes, she moved next to her dad. Gently, she took his arms away from his face and patiently waited for him to look at her. Her own heart almost broke when she saw the traces of tears in the corner of the man's eyes.

"He's strong, as strong as all of us combined," she reminded him, "he made it out and came back once, he can do it again, I know he can. Plus, don't forget that Caitlin and Cisco are among the smartest people on this planet; if anyone can figure it out, they can. At this very moment, Cisco is trying to figure out how it happened, you'll see."

Joe just shook his head, he didn't care about the how it happened; he just wanted his son back.

"Why? Why did he have to go to the future again? Why did he have to risk his life?"

"Because he's a hero," she simply said with a bittersweet smile, "and because he needed to protect me. Isn't that what you taught him to do?"

Passing his hands in his short hairs and wiping the water in the corner of his eyes, Joe forced himself to be as strong as his daughter, "he never needed me to teach him that, he would've done anything for you no matter what."

True to that... a knock on the side of the medical bay's entrance had both West's turning around to see Caitlin standing there with a Big Belly Burger bag in her hands.

"Am I interrupting something?" Seeing both West's shaking their head negatively, she continued, "H.R. came back with some food, you want to join us in the cortex? It's going to be a long day."

"It's okay, we'd rather stay here for an extra moment," Iris replied for both herself and her dad.

''Thought so," answered back the doctor, entering the room as she placed down the bag of food on the desk, not too far from the bed. Coming down, she had already guessed it that Barry's family wouldn't want to move away, and she wasn't going to start a fight she couldn't win. "Just, make sure not to drop anything on my patient," she said, trying, and failing, at lighten up the mood.

Seeing the grateful nods for being allowed to stay at the hero's bedside, Caitlin just smiled and turned around, silently sniffing. Of course, they were all thinking she was going to magically fix this, why was everyone so sure she had the answers to everything? She needed to find Cisco next; she hadn't seen him for many hours now. The poor man had been eating himself up about what happened while trying everything he could to at least figure out the multiple power problems that the lab had been experiencing during the whole night. The lights and power just wouldn't stop going on and off again in some parts of the facility at random moments. Thankfully, no complete power cut occurred, yet.

If Cisco wasn't in the breach room, where everything started, nor in the cortex, that only left one obvious other location; his lab. That's where she headed to and where she, indeed, found him. The engineer was asleep in his chair with his crossed arms placed on the desk and his head resting on them. His doctor friend almost wanted to let him sleep and walk away; he was probably worn out by his restless night at searching for the problem, but she needed an update. That and the small part of Caitlin really needed her friend right now.

"Hey... Cisco," she softly said, gently shaking his shoulders in an attempt to rouse him back to consciousness.

"Mm mm...time?" He mumbled, sleepily, barely lifting his heavy eyelids as moistening his lips with his tongue.

"Almost morning. There's breakfast ready in the cortex."

"Food sounds good, so hungry," came Cisco's tired reply, finally straightening himself up and opening his eyes, looking disoriented for a second like he was wondering what he was doing waking up in his lab. Not that it never happened before, to be honest, "Barry?" he suddenly said, remembering last night's events, "how is he?"

"No changes…" while speaking, she glanced at the computer screen displaying coding in apparently random order all over the screen, almost matrix style, "Looks like you found the glitch."

"I did," Cisco confirmed, "I'm just not sure what to make of it, I've never seen anything like it. Whatever the Speedforce did to our system, it didn't appreciate it."

"Can you fix it? And fast?"

Now completely awake, his tiredness and hunger were all but forgotten as he leaned forward on his desk and frantically typed on his keyboard, "I had the computer analyse it for a couple of hours, I must've fell asleep during it…let me look. If I can find a way to isolate it, then I can destroy the glitch before-"

Before this sentence was even completely over, it got interrupted by a high pitch scream yelling for help. Iris? Barely losing one fraction of a second to share a glance of horror, both young friends started dashing toward the cortex, hearing a little louder with each step the distress call coming their way and footsteps approaching their direction. Turning the corner, they almost bumped into Joe who was meeting them halfway.

"BARRY! HE'S…. HURRY!" He said urgently, gesturing toward the medical bay. Trying to ignore the pit in her stomach, Caitlin started racing again, brushing the detective's shoulder as she closed in on her patient's location.

The speedster's muscles were uncontrollably twitching in all directions, seizing all over the bed. Iris's hands were hovering over the man's body, unsure what she could do to help without injuring him or herself while Wally was standing next to her sister with his eyes just as wide open.

"Help!" Shouted the standing speedster as soon as he saw the cavalry arriving.

"What happened‽" Exclaimed Caitlin, striding inside the room and pushing the people behind to take control of her space in order to work.

''Everything was normal, 'til I heard something weird, like a crackling sound on the monitors! When I turned around to see what was going on, I saw sparks all over," she babbled, on the verge of panicking, "and then, Barry started gasping… and seizing, I don't...don't know what ...oh God."

Her hand went to her mouth as she saw the young man's back violently arching over the back while throwing his right arm in the air and tearing off his IV in the movement.

"Try to keep him down and lay him flat!" Shouted Caitlin to whoever was listening

Was that all happening because of the glitch? A global glitch that coincidentally attacked Barry the exact moment Cisco was trying to destroy it...No time to think about this now, not while Cisco and Wally were fighting to keep their comatose friend down. What was that stinking smell assaulting her nose anyway? It almost resembles... wait, was that the smell of burning flesh? Wrinkling her nose, Caitlin turned her attention to the usual suspects.

"What the..." whispered Caitlin, snatching away the wires and pads connected to her friend's body with one swift movement without taking the time to explain what she was doing.

Anyway, there was no need of that since the people in the room all gasped simultaneously, taking notice of the dark reddened and freshly burned skin underneath. The moment she disconnected the speedster, his friend's body finally relaxed a little. Well, more like completely. And, for a second there, the doctor almost did the same, until a yell from Cisco put her back on high alert.

"Caitlin! The ventilator!" Pointed out the engineer; the equipment sending oxygen wasn't functioning anymore. If the speedster wasn't breathing, it wouldn't take long before his heart and other organs would stop working.

"Dammit, we need to isolate the equipment from the rest of the lab. Wally; go grab me the generator downstairs-"

"On it!" Replied the speedster, gone in a second.

'"-and Cisco, help me, we'll ventilate manually. I'm ready to restart his heart if we have to..."

This nightmare clearly was not about to end.

* * *

 **A/N: leave a comment**

 **Are you starting to figure out what's happening?**

 **The story is moving to the Wednesday next week and will have a weekly chapter for many, many weeks. Starting next week the schedule will be:**

 **Wednesday: Message in a bottle**

 **Friday: The long way home**


	5. Losing Hope

"You look like you need another coffee," Joe commented, coming back in the medical bay with a cup in his hand and his coat on his back, "should've grabbed you one on the way, want mine?" He kindly offered seeing the doctor badly yawning while absently reviewing the same test results over and over again.

"Thanks, but I don't think caffeine as much of an effect on me anymore.'' She answered back, declining the offer as she reluctantly moved her glance away from the computer screen. She hadn't had a single minute of sleep during the whole night and it was really starting to take a stroll on her.

The intensity of the lights diminishing outside the room had both person tensing up, with that last turn of event still fresh in their minds.

"How's Barry?" Inquired the detective, nervously looking down at the hero who was back at his seemingly peaceful sleep, with the crucial assistance of all the medical equipment.

"He's... stable again," she answered, biting her bottom lips and slightly turning her head back toward the computer.

An hour earlier, Wally came back with the portable generator and in a matter of seconds to stabilize the situation. Quickly and efficiently, the team managed to hook all the medical equipment to the generator, including the ventilator, before Barry's heart would stop beating once more, and they managed to get the speedster breathing again. Except, Barry was still completely comatose and unable to give a single response to any outward stimuli.

"Is it going to take 9 months again?"

The hesitation in the doctor's face and the way she clenched her fists on the desk were lost on the detective as he only had eyes for the unconscious man, but it wasn't lost on Cisco who frowned as he was entering the room.

"It could... take some time," Caitlin finally answered, tensing up at the way Cisco was suspiciously looking down at her, but regaining her composure for Joe who took back his place on the white chair next to the bed, "he... we're still trying," she quietly said, almost whispering, doubting the man even heard her.

Getting up from her post, especially now that the speedster wasn't alone in the room, she joined her other friend outside as Cisco was gesturing at her to come over in the cortex.

"Mind telling me what's wrong?" He instantly inquired as his eyebrows furrowed.

"It's no-" she tried to dismiss, only to get cut in the middle of her sentence.

"Caitlin, I know you, don't lie to me."

That he did, she couldn't get away with lying so easily, so instead she just wiped her nose and tried changing the subject in a not so subtle way, "Just, not now, Cisco. Please. Just tell me you figured out what's wrong."

The glare Vibe sent to his friend was clear, even if he did comply with letting the subject go, for now, you won't get away for too long with that.

"I managed to find the anomaly, it's like nothing I've seen before-"

"Which say a lot coming from you."

"-but I think we can get rid of it by doing a complete reboot of the system," stated Cisco with clear confidence, "and once we done that, we'll get our boy back on his feet."

"Yeah…" Caitlin trailed without enthusiasm, biting her bottom lips, "how sure are you that it will work? It can't be a coincidence that this thing, whatever it is, tried to kill Barry, twice now."

Cisco ran his hand through his hair as he looked down at the tablet he was holding, "Look, I don't know exactly what it is and what's causing it, but, right now, I don't care. The only thing that matter is destroying that thing before it makes another attempt on Barry's life. We need to save our friend and we can do that if we cut the power everywhere at the same time, before rebooting."

"And you're sure it's going to work?" she asked, still sceptical, it's not like their last attempt worked so well.

"It will, believe me, it will this time. I just need a couple of hours to prepare everything."

Caitlin nodded and looked back at her patient and at his foster father who was tenderly talking to him. In the next instant, her shoulders tensed up and she started shaking slightly.

"Cait?" Asked a worried Cisco, reaching out for his friend who was turning her back against him, "He'll be okay. He's strong and he is in amazing hands."

His attempt was a nice try, but instead of giving his friend comfort, Caitlin's head bowed down and went into hiding between her hands. Her barely contained sobs could be clearly heard by the man standing behind.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" He said softly, hurrying to position himself between the medical bay and his doctor friend. The engineer was obviously struggling to get her to make eye contact and reveal her face again, "what's wrong?"

The teary eyes that finally agreed to meet his had his stomach sinking in dread, his instinct screaming at him that he didn't really want to hear the news.

"He's…. Barry…he's…he's…Ba…B…" Each word was struggling to come out as Caitlin's airways were mostly occupied by the simple task of getting air in and out, an exercise that was getting more arduous by the second.

"Come on, deep breath, in and out," softly commanded Cisco, while helping his distressed friend to find her way to the closest chair and sitting her down. He still took one second to make sure the sudden and unexpected reaction was lost on Joe, who was still too preoccupied by his son.

"That's it, girl," he encouraged by patting her friend's knees when Caitlin finally complied, imitating her friend's breathing pattern.

It was with silent tears streaming down her face that she found the strength to speak again, "He's gone, Cisco. It doesn't matter what we do."

G… gone? As in gone? Finish? Done? As in… the D word?

"I don't…" Cisco stuttered out, stopping mid-sentence with his mouth half-opened.

"I need to double check it tomorrow, but…" Caitlin closed her eyes for a moment, preparing carefully her next words, "but he has no brain activity left," She tearfully explained, loudly sniffing.

"No, it can't be," protested Cisco, violently shaking his head from one side to the other, fighting off the idea. As long as they didn't accept it, it wasn't going to happen, right? The man almost knelt to the ground in shock, he couldn't lose his friend, "He's not going to leave us, I'm not going to give up on him!"

"Whatever we do, please, don't tell Joe, Iris, or Wally… not yet, not until I'm certain." begged Caitlin, wiping more tears with the back of her hands.

"They shou-"

Whatever he was about to say got lost as the room was once again plunged into darkness for just an instant before the lights came back and went off again, and back, and off again.

"Let's take care of this first, and then we'll find something to help Barry. We will!" Cisco pulled himself up, burning with determination, unless it was desperation. Can't be a coincidence these two words were somehow similar.

The man turned toward the medical bay, listening to the distant and the constant beeping of the machines keeping track of the fallen superhero's vitals and keeping him alive. The lights of the medical bay might look like they were about to have an epileptic crisis, but they were the only thing in that room still connected to the main power as all the medical equipment were still on the separate generator. Ignoring the quickly flashing lights, Cisco whispered, ''you've gotta fight this, buddy, I refuse to believe that you're gone."

 *****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

For the last hour or so, Iris had been continuously typing on her laptop, working to meet the deadline for her next article and trying as best as she could to keep her mind busy on things other than the current situation. Uncomfortably sitting on the chair, with her feet resting against the side of the bed and with the computer resting on her tights, the journalist was badly failing at staying concentrated. How could she hope to care about her job under these circumstances? Her patience sure wasn't at its highest at the moment and it was the understatement of the year to say so as she loudly cursed when her electronic device suddenly decided to freeze without warning.

"Dammit!"

She should've saved her work more often; it was going to be a full hour of work lost if she couldn't get it back. The reporter was in the middle of hitting her keyboard in frustration when the room's speakers crackled, announcing a coming message.

"Alright, everyone-" Cisco's voice came through, "-get yourself ready, it's about to get pretty dark in here. Just make sure to stay away from anything electronic."

Not that my damn computer is good at anything, thought Iris, rolling her eyes, but still putting her feet off the bed and on the floor before disconnecting her computer's charge cord from the wall.

Once it was done, she put down the device on the desk and, coming back to her chair, drew it closer to the bed before taking back her place in it. Her warm hands went to take Barry's left one, needing to feel her lover in the dark for every second that would follow. For countless times, her voice had been the pillar that kept the hero standing and the one thing that took him back where he belonged. This time wasn't any different, their connection would bring him back and, for the moments of darkness that were about to come, his presence was going to keep the young woman grounded.

She barely ever saw or heard her dad and Caitlin coming into the room and taking place to watch over Flash the same way he used to watch over them and his city.

* * *

 **A/N: Leave a comment, always so much appreciated. Is there still hope?**

 **And meanwhile I'll just slowly walk away , laughing evily, and hope you guys don't kill me :) See you friday for more Long Way Home**


	6. I killed him

**Slickest Dino: I hope this count as fun beginning !**

* * *

23 minutes and 30 seconds, that's the amount of time in which the whole lab had been plunged into complete darkness while the system was rebooting and clearing itself of all anomalies. Every second and every aspect of the process had been closely supervised and assisted by Cisco. What was, in reality, mere minutes felt like a lifetime for the engineer who didn't want anything to pass him, not with his best friend's life hanging in the balance. No stone had been left unturned.

When it was all done, he just let himself slump into his chair; it was finally over and now that this problem had been taking care of, they could concentrate all their energy toward helping Barry. Fingers were crossed for whatever the future had in store for the speedster. There just had to be a way out of this, Cisco was refusing to believe anything else.

It's already been many hours since their last attempt at cleaning the mess and so far, so good. There wasn't a single sign suggesting that things weren't back to normal as all the analyses of the computers and the systems were coming back completely clean of all viruses or anomalies, but still Cisco remained in his lab. As the sun was now at its highest point of the day, the engineer was still sitting in his lab, on his own, busy rechecking the same parameter over and over again. In fact, Cisco hadn't gone to be by his best friend, his brother's, bedside for hours now, burying himself in his work. He had been acting like he was afraid that walking into that medical room would break the comatose hero like porcelain. Most people would call it hiding his head in the sand from what was happening out there, but the hero preferred calling it being scrupulous. Anything to keep his mind occupy was good.

Footsteps approaching and entering the room stole his attention away from his computer as he looked straight at the newcomer, Caitlin.

"Anything new?" He inquired, desperately trying to keep his hopes alive.

Caitlin exhaled loudly as she let herself fall on the closest chair, her tensed fingers clenching her knees, "I effectuated every test I could think of and I'm waiting for the results right now, but every one of his vitals are the same."

 _Alright, but what's the plan?_ Thought Cisco, keeping that reflection inside 'til his friend was done talking.

It hadn't sunk in into Cisco's mind that Barry might probably not come back from this. After all, Caitlin was a good, hell, an amazing doctor who knew what she was doing and who had always managed to find a solution to their medical problem. Cisco's brain just couldn't wrap itself around the idea that he would never get to laugh again with Barry or save the world side by side with his best friend. Maybe if he was denying it long enough, it was going to make it real and it would miraculously heal Barry.

"We have to tell them, we have to tell everyone," finally concluded Caitlin, just like that. No plan, no reassurance...nothing.

"What? What about our next step?" Stuttered Cisco in complete denial.

"You should get back in there, Cisco," sadly said Caitlin, understanding way too well how he was feeling. She probably would've done the same if she had the luxury of not being needed in the med bay, "you've been on your computer all day, you can take a break now."

"I just wanna make sure the anomaly is gone," protested Cisco, gluing his eyes back on the screen.

What was the doctor supposed to do to change his mind? Well, could she do other than physically drag him all the way up to the cortex? Yielding on that fight for an instant, the doctor approached herself to take a look at the computer's screen showcasing video surveillance from the cortex.

"What are you even looking at?" She inquired curiously.

"I've been thinking…" what else was there to do? "…with the exceptions of Barry's last seizure and when he first got shocked in the breach room, the only other equipment that had malfunctioned in the building were the lights, nothing else," thoughtfully said Cisco.

"Okay…"

Caitlin frowned and moved a bit closer, unsure what her companion was looking for. The footage currently showing was the one with both of them talking in the cortex, after she shared her findings about Barry's medical condition, an event they were already both there to witness.

"Something feels weird. Why the lights? If this anomaly was trying to hurt Barry, or us for all we know, why not use the computers? Why not cut the ventilation system? Or lock us in?"

All good questions, but none that would really help them right now in their current situation.

"I've been looking back at the footages when we've been having power troubles and it seemed random at first, but this…" he pointed at the screen, "…just look at the way the lights are flashing. It's almost like there's a pattern in there, it's almost like-"

Suddenly, Cisco became ghostly pale and his hands froze over the keyboard, "oh…. God!" He cried with his bottom lips shaking badly.

"Cisco?" Caitlin nervously asked, gently pushing her friend's shoulder as she was attempting, in vain, to get him out of his trance. What was so important about flashing lights? Reporting her attention to the screen and carefully looking for a pattern, that's when she started noticing it too, that's when she started seeing what Cisco was talking about. Caitlin squinted her eyes as she observed the way the period of time between the lights going on and off was short at first, barely a second, for a couple of times, before that time pretty much doubled a few times.

Three times short, three times long, six times short, three times long, six times short... and it kept on going on like that. Finally connecting the dots and putting together the pieces of the puzzle, she paled too and witnessed the screen whirling in front of her eye as realization hit her like a runaway train. Everything was finally making sense.

"You don't think that-" she started, spluttering, and grabbing a hold on the desk to stay upright.

She was no linguist and certainly no expert in codes, but she knew what three short, three long and three short meant in Morse code.

S.O.S.

Something, someone, had been screaming for help. The anomaly in the system; it wasn't a virus. Their whole problem had been caused by a ghost in the machine, a desperate ghost they destroyed hours earlier. If Caitlin was right about the name of the entity they just killed, she was going to be sick.

"You… it can't... you don't think... that... please... tell me... it wasn't B-" she stuttered again, her knees feeling weak, forcing her to tighten her grip on the desk so strongly that her knuckles turned white.

Unable to speak and visibly swallowing, Cisco just nodded slowly. He was thinking the exact same thing than his friend. The electrical exit wound on Barry's head in the breach room, it had to be their friend's consciousness leaving his body and getting trapped inside the lab's computers. Barry was their ghost, Barry had frantically tried to communicate with his friends... and they all ignored him.

"Barry was trying to send us a message," Caitlin added, blinking at the screen while slowly pronouncing every word, unable to take her glance away from it.

"And… I killed him," Cisco completed in the same detached tone, unable to look at the person next to him, "I killed my best friend."

Cisco couldn't move, he couldn't think and could barely breathe at the realisation. All he wanted to do was help and he was just so desperate to rescue his friend by taking down the source of their problems as fast as possible. But, by doing so, he never took the time to really sit and think about how everything started. Why hasn't he made the connection sooner? He instinctively knew people needed to stay in contact when vibing with him, how come he didn't put two and two together in this situation? Instead of thinking, instead of using that big brain of his, he just charged in with his gun blazing, or more like computer blazing, and destroyed the unknown factor without a single thought.

He would have stayed frozen on that spot forever if it wasn't for the voice calling out from the entry of his lab.

"Guys?"

Right there, standing a couple of feet away, stood Iris West. Uh oh, she needed to know.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry, not sorry for the cliff *evil laugh***

 **Leave a comment and let me know if you saw it coming. i'm guessing FlashRemnant that's what you thought would happen :) The original title of this story was ''Ghost in the machine'', but I switched it because it was way too obvious and spoilery**


	7. Help me

**A/N: Sorry not sorry for that last chapter ;) Enjoy!**

 **JediFlashDemigod: Wait...what do you mean I'm evil? *Do puppy eyes and re-read Wounds of the Spirit and Darkest Hour endings...* oh ok nevermind.**

* * *

"Let me verify if I got everything right; when Barry got disconnected while he was vibing with you, his consciousness got lost and accidentally jumped into the computers instead of going back in his body. Does this sound about right?" Joe questioned, who was standing and facing the back of the cortex where Cisco and Caitlin just finished exposing the whole ordeal while leaning against the back of a chair.

"Pretty much," confirmed the engineer, avoiding eye contact.

"I don't get it," admitted Joe, still trying to make sense of what they had told him, "if Barry was the anomaly in the system, why did he try to electrocute himself to death? Twice?" His comment received nods of approval from his son and H.R. who was standing close to him.

"I don't think Barry was trying to harm himself. Quite the contrary, he probably was trying to avoid being destroyed by our attempts," explained Caitlin.

"When he saw that I was coming up with a plan to destroy him and realised he was still unable to communicate with us, Barry probably tried to jump back into his body on his own," added Cisco to help clarify the whole situation.

"So, what you said about Barry being-" Wally made a quick side glance to his family, not sure what word he could use; deceased, brain dead, dead-dead? He turned his attention back toward Caitlin, "What you said about Barry being gone, it's because what's making Barry…well, what's making him Barry was in a computer?''

"Exactly," nodded Caitlin, causing Wally to smile enthusiastically. So, hope wasn't all lost… right?

"So, we can bring him back in his body and wake him up?" Joyfully asked the young speedster.

Cisco looked down while her doctor friend gently laid down a soothing hand on his back, "theoretically it could be possible. Except, since we rebooted everything, we can't find any trace of him."

Getting up from the chair he had been slumped in during the whole exposé, H.R. straightened himself up and banged on the main computer desk with his drumsticks to draw the attention on himself.

"I might not understand much of anything about what you're talking about, but how can you detect if a person's soul, or whatever you want to call it, is gone from your computers? Couldn't B.A. just be hidden in some dark corner of your facility? Could've he have jumped into something else without the need of a cable?"

"Is that possible?" Inquired Iris, her eyes shining with renewed hope. Her mind was desperate enough at the moment to jump on anything, even H.R.'s words.

"I… I don't know, Iris," stated Caitlin, "I really, really wish that I was able to tell you all that there is a way out of this and that Barry is going to be fine, but it's been hours since the reboot and we can't find a single sign of him."

"I killed him," Cisco mumbled sadly, barely above a whisper. His voice was barely loud enough for anyone to understand before he threw his black marker on the ground and stormed out of the room, brushing against Joe's side on his way out.

Nobody said a thing, what was there to add? Barry was gone. The hero had been desperately calling them out for help, as he knew he was about to see his consciousness get destroyed and what did they do? They simply decided it wasn't worth considering it. What did Iris do? She preferred spending time writing her article. Why didn't she spend more time looking out for solutions or for signs he was still out there?

Wait...Her article.

Iris' eyes widened suddenly as she gasped, "I was writing an article."

Confused faces turned in her direction.

"I was writing an article!" She loudly exclaimed, sensing her blood pumping faster in her veins and her heart painfully beating in her chest.

With all the attention turned toward Iris, nobody, at first, noticed how Cisco made a couple of steps back and was now standing at the entry of the cortex, curiously looking at the scene unfolding through his watery eyes.

"What?" Asked Caitlin for the rest of them.

"Just before you rebooted everything, before you turned the power down, I was writing an article for my boss!" She hastily explained with her speech speed getting faster by the second.

"I still don't get it," Wally replied, still having no idea where her sister was heading with that.

"My computer power cable was connected! And my computer turned to black just as Cisco announced the lab was about to go on a complete blackout," as she was speaking, she gestured to the entry of the room where Cisco was standing.

She instantly caused the whole crowd to turn around while Vibe's expression turned blank and his mouth opened as the information made his way to his brain.

"Oh my god!" Cisco exclaimed loudly, snapping his fingers together with renewed interest, "it could be!"

"Cisco?" Caitlin questioned her friend as her deep furrowed in confusion.

"You guys wanna share with the class?" Wally butted in, still clueless about the whole thing.

"Barry!" Breathed out Cisco, "he could've jumped into Iris' laptop before the reboot. He might still be out there! He might not be gone after all!"

 *****FLASHFLASHASH*****

"And you haven't opened it since that moment?" Cisco asked again with obvious worry as the whole team was intensively staring at the black laptop on the Cortex's main desk like it was some sort of holy relic. Well, as far as they were concerned, might as well be.

"I probably should've, to meet my deadline, but with everything happening, I couldn't bring myself to continue my article."

"That's probably a good thing; restarting it with an anomaly could've caused your computer to try and reboot automatically in order to open correctly," Cisco commented, lifting the upper part of the computer, and cracking his fingers like an athlete stretching himself before a supreme effort, "we just need to get into the operating system before the laptop starts his normal opening procedure."

Even without doing any physical movements, the engineer was still drenched in sweat, with his mind filled with doubts and fear; what if they were wrong? Just because their facility was flashing the lights in a distinct pattern didn't mean for sure that Barry was alive. The tension was at its highest in the room and everyone was wondering the same thing.

"Let's do this," whispered Cisco to himself as he solemnly pushed the starting button.

Barry might be the fastest legs alive, but not one has faster fingers on a keyboard than the engineer himself. Well, no one except Felicity, Maybe. All right, maybe not faster than Barry, but surely more precise and effective. Clicking a few touches had the electronic device going completely black in a matter of seconds, only leaving the flashing white line indicating the cursor's position and waiting for anyone to start entering codes or else.

"Here goes nothing. If there's anyone in there, we should be able to communicate," Cisco informed them before quickly backtracking, "that's if I'm right... theoretically..."

"Cisco!" Reprimanded Joe, clearly not liking the way the scientist was making anyone fear for a possible failure.

"Sorry," apologized Cisco.

What was Cisco supposed to write down to this entity? Might as well start with the basics, so he started typing.

 _-Hello?_

 _..._

 _..._

Everyone was tightly pressed around him, all vying to get a clear vision of what was being written on the screen as silence descended upon the lab. Nobody was daring to make a single sound, even keeping their breath, like they were terrified they wouldn't _hear_ the answer that was taking forever to come. Just when hopes were about to get brutally crushed, letters magically appeared one by one, on the screen to form a single word.

 _-Help_

"We're here, buddy," said Cisco aloud before leaning back over the keyboard to type again.

 _-Barry? Is that you?_

 _..._

 _..._

 _-Help... me_

Could the entity really comprehend them? At least, they now had a proof of his existence. If only it could answer the most burning question. Determined, Cisco tried again:

 _-Who are you?_

 _-...it's me..._

 _..._

 _B…_

 _Barry_

Iris was the first one to gasp at the confirmation. What if she hadn't tried to charge her laptop on that day?

 _-We're here. We're going to find a way to help you._

 _-Dark...Trapped...hard...to...communicate_

 _-We'll get you out, you'll be fine. I promise._

 _-h...e...l..._

Even while simply writing short messages on computers, Barry sounded so scared and so lonely. The whole team just kept on staring at the computer, waiting for the next message that never came.

 _-Barry?_

Waiting and waiting, but nothing came. Cisco sighed and turned toward the group after over a full minute of radio silence.

"So how do we fix this?" Asked Joe, stating the obvious.

* * *

 **A/N: Leave a comment :)**

 **See? Not that evil...well, not all the times, ihih. Had any of the person I told to re-read chapter 5 saw the subtle hints I put in it about that twist?**


	8. Ghost in the machine

"Alright, I'm ready!" Exclaimed Cisco, walking in the medical bay with his Vibe's goggles and a pair of headsets in his hand with Caitlin closely following him.

They last received the incomplete communication from Barry over half an hour ago and since that moment, the whole West family and H.R. had been doing the only thing that they could do: wait. Wait and uncontrollably throw frequent glances at the laptop on the desk, not too far from the medical bed as the device was still displaying the unfinished conversation. Iris had been expressing concerns about leaving it open and disconnected from any power source, but Cisco didn't want to risk it. He was afraid about the possibility of Barry jumping of the laptop, accidentally or not, into something else. Plus, he was confident about finding a way to fix this whole situation before the laptop would be out of power, in 3 hours, give or take. And, indeed, Cisco delivered.

"What's the plan?" Wally asked the engineer who was putting everything down on the desk, getting all his gear set up.

"It's pretty simple," replied Cisco with strong confidence, "I've been thinking about this; Barry's body and mind got disconnected from each other because my connection with Barry got cut off while we were vibing together. So, if I can vibe again and find him, I can guide him home the same way I lost him. We just need to repeat the circumstance under which everything unfolded."

"That easy?" Commented Joe, slightly skeptical. As much as he trusted Cisco, the young man seemed a bit too overconfident with his plan.

"It's a gamble, to be honest," Caitlin honestly admitted.

"Hum, no it's not, it's going to work," protested Cisco, "your doubts are hurting my feelings."

"What if it doesn't work? Can we try again after or it's only a one-shot deal for young B.A.?" Asked H.R., hitting his drumsticks together a few times before pointing one of them at the comatose body.

Caitlin shrugged, answering for her friend, "I don't see why not. As long as the computer is fine and charged, Barry should be good."

"Alright, let's try this," Joe reluctantly agreed, they might as well try something.

The clock was ticking, and his daughter was right when she said the young S.T.A.R. scientists were as smart as they come. If they thought it was going to work, there was no reason to not to trust them.

Cautiously excited, needing to fix his mistakes but understanding the odds, Cisco nodded solemnly, "I'll bring him back, I promise. Let's connect us to the laptop and, no matter what happens next, _DO NOT_ intervene or disconnect me or Barry before I say so."

Good advice, especially considering how doing this last time was the reason they ended up in this mess. Iris sure wasn't tempted to repeat the experience. Quickly, the team installed a tablet over the bed before depositing the laptop on it and connecting both headsets to the device.

"Are we really certain this thing won't hurt him again?" Nervously asked Iris as the doctor was delicately placing the device on her patient's head.

"What hurt him was being disconnected while still vibing with me," reminded Cisco, adjusting his own headset before putting his goggles on.

"Good luck, Cisco," Iris wished him.

"Just bring my son back, all right?" Joe nodded at the engineer.

"I will," he assured, activating his goggle, efficiently allowing his power to overtake his mind and to transport him right into another dimension. A dimension he still hadn't visited during all of his adventures.

When the world finally stopped whirling in front of his eyes and his consciousness was done carrying him away from the normal realm, the young superhero found himself in the darkest of places. Everything was just so dark. The incredibly dim light, emanating from an unknown origin, was barely enough for the engineer to see his own hands and feet. Scanning around, he couldn't discern anything, there wasn't any furniture, nor figure or anything else that with any kind of shape. If he had one word to describe this place, it would be emptiness. Or Darkness.

"Hello?" He called out, hoping for any kind of answer from his best friend, except the only answer he got back was just the echo.

 _Hello… hello… hello…_

 _Hello_

Ok…the echo was definitely making this place even weirder, almost creepy. At this very instant, there was nothing more that Cisco wanted in life than making contact and leaving as fast as possible. He tried calling out again, wandering a couple of steps to his right and then a bit forward in this seemingly endless void.

"Anyone in there?" He tried again, forcing his mind into not thinking about the possibility of getting trapped himself in the computer.

Just as he was about to let his brain take him on a whirlwind of crazy and horrific scenarios of what danger could be lurking in the shadow, thanks to his fertile imagination and to his habit of watching scary movies, a shadow appeared not that far away. No, not a shadow, a figure and an approaching one at that.

"Hello?" Called out the figure.

That voice. Cisco would've recognized it anywhere and he instantly sighed in relief. Striding forward, he managed to get closer and closer, 'til he was finally able to see the face and confirm the identity of his interlocutor.

"Barry!" He exclaimed with the widest smile on his face, going ear to ear, "I've never been happier to see you."

The speedster looked confused and a little bit out of it, but he was there, he was alive. Well, sort of alive. They really were right, Barry wasn't brain dead, not exactly. The man was wearing the same clothes and beige jacket he had worn during that Vibing to the future fiasco.

"Cisco? Where are we?" Asked Barry in a detached tone, looking around, "what's happening to me?"

Finally, only inches away from his best friend, his not-so-dead-after-all best friend, his very-much-alive best friend, Cisco strongly gripped Barry's shoulders. For some reason, Cisco just felt the need to touch him and feel he was really there, which was a weird wish considering their physical bodies were still in the lab.

"It's going to be difficult to believe, but you're in Iris' computer," he said, letting go of his friend, "you've been separated from your body when we were trying to vibe the future."

Just another Tuesday for them.

"I've been trying to communicate with you, it's been difficult. I've been trying…" Stuttered Barry, looking at something that wasn't there over Cisco's shoulder before looking back at his friend. It wasn't exactly clear if the man actually heard a single word of what Cisco just said. All right, so he definitely confused, but who wouldn't be in his situation?

Well, to be fair, there was no known precedent for being an actual ghost in the machine, so no way to tell if Barry's confusion was normal or not. With a serious expression on his face, Cisco grabbed back his friend's shoulder and forced the speedster to look him straight in the eyes:

"I'll explain everything later, but right now, you have to come with me."

"How are you even here?" Asked Barry, recovering a bit of lucidity in his eyes.

"I'm actually… vibing inside the computer," proudly smiled Cisco under Barry's slowly blinking eyes.

"…what?"

Yep, definitely another regular Tuesday for the team.

"Do you trust me?" Asked Cisco, slowly reaching forward with his right hand, "I can help guide you back where you belong."

 *****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

The tension was high, and the silence was deep for each and every person sitting or standing in the medical bay as they were all anxiously watching the comatose man and the engineer sitting next to the bed in a complete trance. There's nothing they wouldn't have given to be able to know and see, what was going on in there. Was Cisco able to make contact? Was Barry really still alive?

During the whole process, Iris had been fighting off the urge to grab her boyfriend's hand to comfort him. She just wanted to make him known she was there, but she didn't want to risk interfering again considering how everything turned out last time.

"We're all here, you can come back now," she whispered, softly. Her tone of voice was barely audible, but, in the deafening silence, it still got heard by everyone.

Cisco inhaling sharply draw all their attention toward the first of the two men who decided to join them back into reality. Taking his goggle off, the hero had no chance to take a breather because, realizing Barry wasn't waking up too, Iris, Joe, Wally, and H.R. all jumped on him with questions.

"Cisco, what happened?"

"Was B.A. there?"

"Is Barry ok?"

"What did you see?"

Except, they weren't the only one noticing how Barry still wasn't moving a single muscle, staying completely dependent on the machines to keep him alive. Not taking a single second to answer all the questions, Cisco focused all of his attention on his friend.

"Barry!" Exclaimed the engineer, struggling to get out of the chair and clumsily mixing his short legs with the furniture and the people around him. Cisco almost went down, only avoiding it thanks to the three pair of hands rushing to help him.

"Easy, Cisco," Wally steadied him, "what happened?"

"Barry-" He simply repeated as it was supposed to explain anything. Every single bit of his attention was completely directed toward his friend as he pushed the hands away and moved closer to his friend, with his headset still on, "come on, wake up now."

He turned toward the anxiously waiting group, "he was right next to me, he's supposed to wake up now."

* * *

 **A/N: Almost done guys, leave a comment**

 **See you Friday for more Europe's adventures for Barry :)**


	9. When our best isn't enough

"Cisco! What happened in there? Were you able to make contact?" Asked Joe, barely able to keep control of his nerves.

"I don't understand, he was right behind me," softly whispered Cisco, keeping hold of his friend's cold hand, "come on, buddy, come on. Come back to us."

"Cisco…" Iris started, only to get interrupted by a sharp inhale from the bed as Barry suddenly took his first breath on his own power since this whole ordeal started.

It was the most beautiful sound all of them had ever heard. They just wanted to scream, cheer or cry, or all them at the same time.

"Oh my God! Barry!" Exclaimed Joe, inadvertently pushing Cisco as he rushed forward to be by his son's head and get in position for when he'll open his eyes, which was hopefully about to happen in a moment or two.

Their joy was short lived when the second breath, and the following ones, came out in a coughing fit. No, not coughing, choking, Barry was fighting the ventilator and desperately struggling to get air in or out despite the tube down his throat that was blocking his airways.

"Caitlin!" Screamed Cisco, successfully putting the woman out of her trance and back into full-on doctor mode.

"Out of the way!" She ordered, instantly clearing the needing space to work her magic, "Cisco, with me. Everyone else out!"

Reluctantly, they all complied and rushed outside. On their way out, they all heard Caitlin giving swift and specific instructions to her friend while trying to diagnose if her patient was conscious or not.

"Barry, can you hear me? Can you open your eyes for me? Cisco, go grab me the-"

 *****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

How long have they been waiting? Five minutes? Ten? Thirty? More? Less? Time had stopped the moment they all got kicked out of the room and got left wondering if Barry was back or if something went terribly wrong, again. A couple of hours ago, Caitlin was about to declare the speedster brain dead and throw the towel. Later, barely moments ago, the team suddenly learned that they almost destroyed the speedster in their efforts to contain the damages. Catching a break wasn't in their vocabulary. What were the consequences of having your conscious transferred into a computer and back? Could there be brain damages of any sort?

Iris' reflections came to a stop when the corner of her eye spotted the doctor getting out of the medical room to join them. Caitlin didn't have to walk too far since, once the group knew she was heading their way, Iris, Joe, Wally, and H.R. all rushed in to join her midway.

"How is he?" Asked Joe for the rest of them.

"He's awake. You can come in to see him," she answered, with a tired but relieved smile on her lips.

Her relaxed expression was all they needed to breathe out before moving in the direction of the med bay. The speedster was in a half-seated position on the bed, his back comfortably slumped against an impressive pile of fluffy pillows while his face was facing the other side of the entrance, quietly discussing with Cisco who was seated next to the bed.

"Hey," greeted Joe, knocking on the side of the room's entrance to announce himself and, when Barry turned his head to face him, the detective just smiled like he never did before in his life.

His son looked a little pale and tired, ok, more like completely exhausted, but there was no more ventilator breathing for him, nor any monitor attached to his chest. The only medical equipment's still in place were the pads on each side of his head to survey his brain waves and the finger clip monitoring some of his vitals.

"Barry," Exhaled Iris as she rushed past her father to gain her boyfriend's bedside first. Reaching her destination, she stopped, unsure if she could touch Barry without breaking him like glass.

The only response she got from the hero was a confused and blank expression before the man finally opened his mouth to rasp the words that made Iris' stomach drop.

"Who's Barry?"

Every visitor opened their eyes in shock and paled like a ghost. Oh no, not this... Well, more like everyone except his two best friends.

"Barry..." growled Caitlin, while Cisco shamelessly smacked his best friend's arm.

"Hey! Watch the merchandise!" Protested Barry.

"Not funny, man," retorted the engineer under the confused and unamused looks of the other members of the team who were left to themselves to put the pieces together.

Obviously, judging by Caitlin and Cisco's annoyed reactions, there wasn't much to worry about.

"So... you're not amnesiac?" Concluded Wally, playing with his hands.

"I'm fine. Sorry guys," assured Barry, serious again and apologizing, "you're right, it wasn't really funny… but you should've seen your faces," he added with a small smirk at the corner of his lips, almost earning another smack on the arm, all be it from Iris this time.

But, instead of getting angry and going physical, Iris decided to exhale in relief.

"You had us all really worry there," Joe said, still working on slowing down his racing heart after that not-so-funny joke attempt.

"Are you really ok?" Gently asked Iris, sitting in the uncomfortable chair next to the bed and taking the man's hands between her own.

Barry nodded as he answered, "yeah, I am. I'm having the biggest hangover of my life at the moment and my head hurts like hell, but I'm ok. I will be."

Uncertain about how much they could rely on the young hero's information, considering how prompt he was to hide injuries to protect the rest of the world, the West family all turned to Caitlin in a not so subtle motion for confirmation.

"I'd like to keep him for observation 'til tomorrow, but yes, he'll be fine," she assured them, smiling.

"Barry," Wally started, moving closer to the hero, "do you remember anything about what happened to you?"

"Bits and pieces," he said instantly, "Cisco had been trying to fill me in, but, honestly? It's mostly one big blur of darkness and cold. That and just that overwhelming loneliness."

"You truly don't remember sending us an S.O.S. message through the lab's lights?" Curiously asked Wally.

"'Not really," Barry replied truthfully, slowly shaking his head, "'I remember being desperate to reach out to you and communicate, but I couldn't find a way to do it. I'm sorry, I wish I could be more helpful."

"That's ok, man-" Cisco patted his shoulder, "-while I would be the biggest liar in the world to say I'm not curious to know how it's like being in a computer, the most important thing is that you're ok and that you're back. You scared us good for a moment," his usually bright eyes had a shadow passing in them at the thought of what he almost did or what could've happened if it wasn't for Iris' computer needing to be recharged.

"Plus, your memories might come back too, eventually," Caitlin added with a slight tease.

"Yeah... not sure if I really want to remember, to be honest," It's not like the flashes and bits of memories he had were so fun and great.

"What's your last clear memory?" Inquired Joe.

Barry frowned as he dug deep into his own mind, which would already be a difficult enough task under the circumstances, but that was way harder thanks to his killer headache.

"I remember clearly vibing the future. I was with Cisco, in May..." he recalled, slowly. Without warning, his whole body tensed up and he started looking around, alarmed, "wait! What date are we?"

"Calm down," Caitlin comforted him, rushing into action and gently, but firmly, pushing him back against the pile of pillows, "you've only been out for a couple of days."

"We'll figure it out, together, as a team," added Joe, understanding, like the rest of the team, the reason for his son to panic about the date. Of course, his first concern was going to be about Iris instead of himself.

The break Barry gave his body, allowing it to relax and sink back on the bed, was short-lived as another thought hit him hard and had his eyes sharply opening. He threw an interrogative look at Cisco, hoping his best friend would catch up on his reflection. Maybe it was thanks to his semi-psychic abilities, or maybe simply because he knew way too well how to read his friend, but Cisco instantly decrypted the dread all over the hero's face.

"Joe already knows. Everything."

Oh...

"Joe, I'm s-" Wanted to apology Barry, turning his head and upper body in his foster dad's direction, only to get cut halfway.

"I'm not mad, Barr. Not anymore," he clarified. Of course, he had been pretty upset at first, but now he was just happy to see that Barry will live to fight another day, "let's just make sure that we stop keeping secrets, all of us," he said, turning his glance all around the room to make eye contact with everyone, one by one.

"Promise," said Barry, earning nods of approval from all around the room, "we're going to fix this, we're not going to let this unfold," he assured, turning toward his girlfriend, and smiling tenderly for a second before his expression turned into a wince as his body slightly leaned forward.

"You okay?'' Worriedly asked Iris, letting go of Barry and delicately putting a comforting hand on the CSI's back.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine. It's just my head that's killing me right now," he grimaced.

"We should probably let you rest, it's good to have you back, B.A," H.R. grinned as he overly ceremoniously showed the exit to the rest of the group with his drumsticks.

"All right, I'll be back later," Joe got up, moving forward first to take his son in the strongest and warmest hug he ever did, "you need to stop doing that, Barr," he said, almost choking up.

"Believe me, I'm trying," lightly chuckled Barry, returning the hug.

Letting go, he waved and nodded at the people greeting him on their way out, leaving one by one with their head high, grateful for the turn of events. Well, almost all of them looked completely satisfied about the way everything unfolded. The way Cisco's shoulders fell forward as he was following the group wasn't lost on Barry who frowned.

"Cisco?"

His best friend froze and turned around, "yeah?"

"Don't blame yourself, man. You did what you thought was right," calmly requested Barry.

"I didn't-"

"You didn't have to say anything, I know you, man. I know it's probably eating you inside what you did. You were trying to help me."

"I almost destroyed you, killed you, completely when I rebooted the system," depressively grumbled Cisco under the careful eye of his best friend who was silently watching his movements as Vibe moved closer to the bed before moving away again, rubbing his eyes, "how can you be so calm about all of this? Get mad. Do Something. I don't know..." his attitude was slightly building toward annoyance seeing how his friend wasn't realizing how close they came to lose him because Cisco couldn't use his brain.

"Cisco. You're not the only one making mistakes… remember Flashpoint?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Inquired Cisco, frowning, but stopping his circle to look at his friend's features, curious to see where Barry was heading with that.

"I came back to this timeline because I wanted to fix things for all of you guys and, doing so, only ended up making things worse. I know what it's like wanting to help and, making mistakes in the process because I was in a hurry. You forgave me for that, didn't you?"

Yeah, Flashpoint. That one hit close to home to the young engineer who lost his brother in the process and saw Caitlin starting her long fight against becoming Killer Frost. No argument that Barry messed up on that one.

"Yeah, yeah I did. Because I knew-" Cisco stopped midsentence, realizing the point Barry was trying to make, "-because I realized you only did what you thought was right at the time."

Barry smiled, "sometimes doing our best isn't enough or isn't taking us on the right path, but it's all we have and it's good enough for me. You just wanted to help me so bad that you did a mistake, we all do, we all did."

Barry was right and the important thing, like they said earlier, was that Barry was going to be ok.

"So, we're good. Right, man?" Asked Barry after a few seconds of silence.

"Yeah. Yeah, we are," Cisco smiled as he gently putting a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder, "just rest, alright? I'll see you tomorrow."

Barry nodded, feeling the weight of the world being lifted from his shoulders. He was going to be ok, as long as his friends would be by his side, nothing could take him down.

 **The. END.**

* * *

 **A/N: Last chance to leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on the story :)**

 **Thank you SO MUCH all of you for reading 'til the end and for taking the time to comment. Even if I'm not the fastest keyboard alive and sometimes I take a moment to answer, answering back to every comment is the best part of writing.**

 **I'm kind of sad this story is over...but Long Way Home is going to keep getting updated. I sent 2 full new chapters to my Beta, hopefully she'll have time to correct one before Friday. If she doesn't, I'll keep you updated on my twitter account .**

 **Other than that, I have a couple of options for what I'll do next. I'm thinking about either:**

 **1) Rewriting What makes him tick ; because, seriously, my writing has changed so much I can't barely look at that old story anymore, plus I have a LOT of ideas to make a new version**

 **2) Write a Darkest Hour sequel**

 **3) Write a new story**

 **If you have a preference, don't be shy to let me know in the comment or with the poll on my account. See you later everyone!**


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